The first successful joint-operation in the fight against crime between the police forces of Vietnam and Thailand was marked by the arrest of a Vietnamese prisoner trying to escape to Thailand.

According to Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Hoang Minh Tan, deputy-head of the Criminal Police Department in central Ha Tinh province, and Colonel Pornsak Surasith, head of Thailand’s Criminal Police Force 1, both police forces worked together to seize Tran Van Quyen in Bangkok on Sept. 27.

Quyen, 25, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in June for robbery. He and three accomplices escaped from a prison in Ha Tinh province and fled to Laos, then to Thailand.

Quyen will be charged with illegal entry into Thailand then extradited to Vietnam to serve out the rest of his sentence.

Tan said the other three criminals were arrested earlier and charged for using false documentation and illegal entry into Thailand./.